MotherDaughter Relations
by Azaria Stromsis
Summary: Mother Nature was aptly named. YuseiAki.


_Summary: _Mother Nature was aptly named.

_Author's Note: _This is something that sprung into my mind after I read Artemis Ignitan's fic Spring Thing. Go read her's because it's great.

_Disclaimer: _Azaria Stromsis does not own 5D's. *sulks* She wants to though. Bloody owners won't sell out...

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Mother-Daughter Relations

Mother Nature was Aki's mother. She gave Aki everything she missed in a true mother; comfort, and the warm feeling that a child gets when they know that their mother will always be there. No matter what. Mother Nature gave Aki what she had missed for so long. She had missed being human. Have friends, having human contact.

Aki has loved spring forever, every since she could remember. With the knowledge that her soul is a part of a grander scheme of things and that she is basically reincarnated, she likes to think that she has always loves spring the way she does now. The cold goes away, the flowers bloom, and the world comes _alive_. Then the spring melts into summer, and the feeling continues, if not grows.

-

Aki loved the spring because she could watch everything.

She could watch people. She would sit for hours, hours upon hours, just watching people. The cold had gone away and the people came out from their homes like bears coming out of hibernation; many looking out with fresh eyes that had been dampened by the weary toil of winter's heavy burden. She could hear the children's laugh resonating throughout the streets. She could feel the breezes brushing past her face like the pulse that raced underneath her thin layer of skin. She could be a regular person, because she could get away from the Academia. Away from the people who knew her and knew what she did. She could get away from the Movement, who even though they accepted her and had the same powers, never understood her.

These people, who she had never met, would smile and nod at her as she passed them on the street. The children smiled shyly, some not so shyly, and walked up to her telling her the cutest damn things. "I like your hair," or, "You smell nice." She would pursue her lips in a small amused smile and bend down to their eye level. They would blush, that was mostly the boys, or reach out and tug on her bangs saying how they wanted her hair with its softness and thickness and length and color, the girls. She would give them a hug, and she would hold on tight because this was spring, and this was a new year for everybody, and she was lonely dammit. The parents would laugh, and say that they were sorry and that they were so embarrassed when they really wouldn't because their child was the apple of their eye, and Aki would smile up at them and say, "It's quite alright."

Because it was alright. With their sticky hands tangled in her shirt, and their hair tickling her nose, she would sigh and wish for winter to go away forever.

Sometimes she went into the park.

The grass was green, and lush, and the flowers were splashes of color and the meadows bloomed so majestically. She found the best grasses to make a bed, the best flowers to make a pillow, and the best leaves to weave into a blanket. She found the way a particular jogger moved as they sprinted past her sparing her a smile, and a nod, as they passed. And that one little gesture would allow her to tilt her head back, smile, and doze for hours on end because she could. She once woke to find that it was twilight, and she had gathered two companions.

A small fawn was tucked into her side, its head nestled under her breast. It's breathes were in time with hers, and she nearly sat up in surprise but she thought better of it when she saw the doe eyeing her with a look saying, "Please. Please. Sleep, sleep. You do not have yet to go." She sighed, her stomach raising the fawn's head, and she noticed that she doe started to graze quietly a few yards from where they lay. They must have been from the reserve that neighbored the park, and she found that she didn't really care. Her curious mind silenced for once, she just sat there and breathed.

When she couldn't get away from the Academia or the Movement she went to the roof. Since both of the places where she had no human contact were tall buildings, towering above all else, she would go up to the roof dragging a fold up chair with her and just watch the sky. She usually ditched the chair after about thirty seconds, preferring to lay on her back and watch.

And she just sits. Just sits, and sits, and sits; until her skin is turning the same color as her hair and her eyes are aching from the color blue with the sun bleeding itself into her eyes. She thinks that she is sick of the color blue, never wanting to see it again. She looks up again and knows that it really isn't true.

Aki loves the spring; she loves the blue sky and warming of the earth. She loves it so much because she doesn't need to hide anymore. Whether it be from the cold or the glares of the people that she has been locked in with for the past four months.

When she meets Fudo Yusei he gives her more than he knows; his eyes are the exact same shade as the spring sky, his body contains the warmth of the earth, and he is the first person to ever accept her for what she was, no questions asked. She drags him up towards the roof, making him carry the chairs because she has done this so many damn times that she deserves to have someone else carry it, and they just sit. They don't talk; they just sit and they just breathe it all in.

The spring melts into the summer, and the feelings and sights never really melt away. Just change with the warming climate. The pools open. The children dive in, the sea become full of people and boats. But, while the spring changes into summer, they don't. They are still up there, watching. They are still there, sleeping in the meadows. They begin to meld the two seasons into one, because they really were.

-

Aki loves the spring rains and the spring smells and the summer smells and the summer rains.

And every time a rain comes, she thinks to herself, "Just breathe it in." Breathe in the rains, and feel the wetness slid down your skin, the sky crying for you when you cannot. She doesn't laugh, because she isn't quite there yet, but she opens her arms and tilts her head back and her mouth falls open. The rain pools in her mouth, and she drinks for what feels like the first time. Her clothes plaster themselves to her skin; she doesn't care.

She is alive.

The rain reminds her of what she has lost, what she has gained, and what she will gain and what… There are so many what's that she pauses trying to think the thought through but the rain never stops.

The rain becomes music to her ears. Her hand moves, and her head nods along with the silent music that isn't silent. Each drop is an instrument, and with every drop that touches her mother she feels the vibration in her soul. She breathes, the smell of the flowers and the grass melting into her blood stream, and she relaxes. She goes back to her meadow, and she lies down and the rain pelts her figure and it hurts sometimes but she doesn't care anymore because it feels so good. She could be doing so many other things, but she isn't.

This is where she wants to be.

Her clothes probably weight twenty pounds, and she looks like a drowned cat that has been brought back to life to kill you but she is insanely happy.

Yusei somehow got out of this little tradition, but he is not the only one who likes the rain.

Rua thrives on this kind of music as well, and Aki has found another kindred spirit. They rejoice in it together, and her meadow (Yusei's meadow as well) become their meadow. When he gets cold, only happening sometimes and when they had been exposed for a damn long time, she pulls him to her and he cuddles into her body searching for warmth like a puppy that is newly born and looking for its mother.

The summer rains are just as comforting. While it's noticeable in the spring, it's practically alive in the summer. The humidity comes out of seemly nowhere, announcing hours, maybe days, before the rain actually comes. It is a comforting weight, pressing down on her body and she feels sticky well into the night. It's muggy outside, and even when children and adults alike emerge from the pool they feel like they are still in it.

She doesn't just like the rains because they wash away her sins. She likes the rains because they give a new beginning. Yusei knows this, and accordingly he places their first kiss in the rain. Aki may have started crying but it was pouring down rain and with them in the park it looked a hell of a lot like a rainforest and neither of them can see an inch in front of their face. In fact, it's a miracle that Yusei managed to find her lips, but she still doesn't care. Because this is where she wants to be.

The smells manage to penetrate the water as well, even when it's coming down so hard it's basically a sheet of water being dumped from the heavens.

Flowers bloom and she tastes them on her tongue like the richest of wines. Roses, tulips, orchids, and stuff she can't even name, and she smells it. She also smells the fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, and the grass. The farmer's markets are her favorites even though she doesn't cook worth a damn. She just walks around smelling everything. The bread smells absolutely fantastic. This continues all the way into summer and sometimes, rarely but sometimes, into the fall.

With all of this, she begins to think that she has something new here. Something that she would be willing to defend, to die to defend. Breathing in, gasping for breath, she remembers just how much she loves life.

-

Aki loves the coolness of the spring, and the heat of the summer.

While spring is hot, or warm as some people like to call it, it is cool compared to the raging heat of summer. It is used to ease the body into summer.

Spring was cool because the frost still sneaked up on the city at night, reminding the residents of what they had just lived through saying, "I'm still here, and I will always be here. Remember. Because I will come back." And the residents take the warning seriously, spending all of their time outside when they can.

Summer brings intense heat, and the freedom that the children desire so much, that desire running like a itch throughout their veins. Their soul screams for the cool waters, and the deliciously hot sun. The light blinding their eyes and the good food and good laughs that come with a grill. The frost has been gone for a while.

Ruka always reminds Aki to dress how Aki should really be dressing. To wear coats and sweaters when necessary and when to wear even less than she does now or else she might get some rash of some kind or some other thing that comes. Aki loves that child so much, her and her brother, and she drags Ruka out with her. Ruka needs this as well, and Aki hopes that Mother Nature will give this little child the same chance that she got.

She heard tales of when Martha used to pick raspberries in the summer. Mosquitoes ran about fanatically, finally pulling their full of the blood that they needed, because they couldn't wear jeans and long sleeves or else they would die. The vines ran above their heads, creating a tunnel that funneled them towards the ground making them crawl on their hands and knees but they got a sweet and ripe reward. The berries were delicious; she remarked fondly, eyes wistful.

Aki showed up the next day with a pint of raspberries, and a smile of thanks.

She sighed, again in her meadow (now Yusei's, and Rua's, and Ruka's) and felt the weight of the heat press down on her form and she smiled and felt a small laugh slip out of her because maybe now she could finally laugh. She was in the company of friends.

Oh, how she loved it here.

-

Mother Nature didn't give Aki presents on her birthday like any normal mother would. But the thing is Aki didn't want presents. Because her mother gave her presents, even when they didn't see each other for months at a time. Mother Nature gave her a second chance, a chance to see that she _was _human. And Aki took that chance, every single time.

It was just that this year, something actually came out of that chance.

**Fin.**


End file.
